Enter Haru Katsu
by Jesh Nyx
Summary: Haru Katsu, a wealthy, bored 16 year old Japanese student has an impulse to want more out of life. A Hollow attack thrusts him into the world of spirits and he wants in on the action. He will take the path to become a Soul Reaper.  Don't hate on OCs now
1. Chapter 1

Plip. Plip. Plip.

The sound of the rain hitting a window in the evening was a sound more enjoyable than silence itself. A pair of eyes looks at the window covered in water droplets. They are the eyes of Haru Katsu, the sixteen-year-old son of an executive working for Japan's most prominent TV network. He sits in his leather armchair, staring at the outside world through the distorted window of his family's penthouse at the top of Oko Tower in downtown Karakura Town. His medium-length shaggy hair covers the top portion of his view.

"Why must I be the one to not have anything to do on a gloomy day like this?" Haru asks to himself. He gets up and puts his hand on the window, looking at all the rain falling from the sky and making unnoticeable impacts on the ground below. "My dad would usually hand me a fancy toy when I was little. Then as I got older a new video game, but I now no longer enjoy the things he gets me to entertain me while he's away on his business trips."

Haru lives with only his dad because his mother passed away giving birth to him. His dad didn't want him to feel guilty about it so he does his best to make him happy. Haru has now grown tired of this and wants something more than what a video game can give: something to give his life more purpose. What it is he's looking for now, though, he doesn't understand.

Haru's phone goes off. He picks it up and answers.

"Oh hey man," Haru replies to the sound of one of his buddies' voices.

"Hey Haru! Do you wanna come to the arcade and hang out?" Haru looks out the window again as he listens.

"Sure, why not? I've been wanting to get out of my place anyhow."

Haru didn't bother to take an umbrella with him because he prefers to feel the rain, so he knows that it's real and it's there. The walk down the street to the arcade was of no incident and Haru soon finds himself surrounded by his group of friends... well Haru never considered them his real friends.

"Hey Katsu, let's go play this game!" Haru walks with one of them to a shooter game and picks up a pistol controller. He easily fights off all of the aliens and gets a high score. To him, Haru's "friends" are only hanging out with him because of his family's wealth and the credibility of the network his dad works for.

An hour has passed of unlimited game playing when Haru finally stops. He looks outside the arcade to see the rain has subsided.

"Guys, I'm going now," he announces. There were protests to his leaving. Haru replies, "Sorry but I just don't feel like it anymore now. I'll see you later." He walks outside the arcade into the street.

There was the sound of an explosion down the street.

"Huh?" Haru looks in the direction of the sound. There was a cloud of dust in the sidewalk down the block. Once it settles down, he sees a crater is now in the concrete. Everyone soon comes out to see what was going on.

"What the-?"

"Was it an explosion?"

"Someone call the police!"

Another explosion occurs right next to Haru. The blast blows him back quite a bit and then he suddenly feels like a truck just hit him from another direction and he flies a bit further away from the site of the explosion. Haru groans from the pain he felt from that blast. He moves his head up to see what is there now.

His vision was a bit blurry, but he sees a faint, opaque form right where he was standing. The form looks about two stories tall and is not of this world.

"What... what is that?" Haru asks. As he says those words, he starts to feel something that he has never felt in his whole life. He feels like as if he can sense the thing that stands before him without even looking at it. The form seems to turn around a bit and then it vanishes. Haru tries to see where it had went, but then he loses consciousness from the hit he took.

The next time Haru opened his eyes, he doesn't find himself in a hospital as he was expecting when he passed out. To his curiosity, he wakes up to find himself in his own bed.

"What the...? Why am I here?" Haru then recalls the strange thing he saw when he was blown back by the explosion. "And what was that?"

He gets up and goes to a nearby TV. The power button is pressed and it goes on right away to a news channel. At the anchor desk was a women dressed in a scarlet-red suit that was possibly made for nothing more than to look gorgeous on the tube and tell people about events that have no meaning to them.

"In downtown Karakura Town, there were a couple of explosions in the shopping district. The police have evidence to suggest they were gas explosions, caused by fissures in the pipeline."

Haru slowly watches her, waiting for a hint that he was there after all.

"The police also reported that no one was injured and only minor property damage was done." The power button is pressed again to turn the machine off. Haru takes a second to contemplate what was reported.

"Just what the hell is going on here...?" he asks himself in the confines of his room. After he takes a swing around the penthouse, it was clear to Haru that his dad wasn't still home yet. With the sun now breaking over the horizon in the east on a beautiful day in Karakura Town, Haru can only think of one thing to do now with his time. He gets dressed and then walks out of Oko Tower to head for the nearby park.

As he walks, he tries to contemplate all the things that are happening to him now all of a sudden. The explosion, the thing he saw... and of course why are people now saying he wasn't involved in all of that. He walks past a couple of people putting up flowers near a wall. As he walks by, he hears them talk.

"Poor girl... it has been a month since she died in that car accident..."

"I only wish she could have been spared from this unfortunate twist of fate..."

Then Haru starts to have that same feeling he felt that previous night-the feeling of sensing a presence that is watching him. He turns his head and sees a little girl standing right next to the mourning folks. Her shirt was stained with blood and blood covers her head.

Haru instantly says, "Hey are you alright?" The mourners turn to look at him.

One of them goes, "Were you talking to us young man?" He points to the girl with the bloody shirt behind them.

"Don't you see her behind you?" asks Haru. They turned around to look where he was pointing. Slowly their heads turn from left to right and up and down. They look at that spot for a while.

"Young man, are you feeling ok today?" they ask him with concern. Haru looks at them and then back at the young girl who is now turning to look at him. His eyes slowly go down to the rain puddle beneath her feet and he sees a very unusual thing... there was no reflection of the girl in the puddle. Haru's mind slowly takes it in of what it is he is seeing.

"Yes, I'm feeling fine... sorry to disturb you." Haru says with a cooling calmness in his voice. He continues on his path, but he knows as he walks away that the girl was watching him with each step he takes. "Just what was that about? How can I see her when they can't?" he asks himself.

The walk to the park continued without any further interruptions. Haru takes a path into the park and then takes a seat on a bench. With no one else around and a mind filled with questions to himself, Haru lets loose the dam and the thoughts came flowing out.

_What the hell is going on around here? It all started out with that explosion last night, that much I can tell... that thing I saw there, just what the heck was it anyhow? And then the reports saying that I wasn't there at all... as if all of the memories of it were altered... To top it all off, I just saw a girl with blood on her shirt that no one else can see! I don't know if it sounds like I think it is... but it's starting to sound like I can see ghosts now._

A gruesome cry of an unworldly beast rings out in the park. Haru quickly gets up off the bench to see what it was that made the cry. It was silent and unmoving for a heartbeat. Then he gets that same feeling he had from when he saw that strange form and that dead girl.

"God... what is happening?" Haru exclaims. Then from a grouping of trees nearby, a creature that

is not familiar to Haru emerges. It was very tall and bizarre-looking with its black skin, a white face that resembles a mask, a hole in its chest, and the being has the form of a very large centaur at least. To Haru, it was a monster.

It occurs to him that this almost looks like the very thing he saw at the arcade. It matches his very description of the form he barely witnessed.

"Just what the hell is that thing?" Haru yells. The creature walks forward a bit in front of Haru. Then as quick as he can blink his eye, the thing seemed to have stopped dead in its tracks, and it body was split in half. As this happens, the creature gives out the same terrible cry that Haru heard earlier. It vaporizes into the thin air.

Haru stares at it as he finds himself unable to move. A woman then emerges from the nearby trees and goes to the area where the thing was standing. The stranger had her back to Haru. She had long purple hair tied into a pony tail and was wearing some strange clothing, but they appear to be an orange jacket and black pants.

"That's another one down," she says after a moment of silence. Haru was able to take to it that she was the one who eliminated that unusual being. The woman just stands there for a bit, and then in front of Haru's eyes, she was gone in a flash.

"... I think I need more time to figure out what's going." Haru says at long last.

That evening, the rain returns to Karakura Town once again and it strikes against the window where Haru was looking out at the world from last night. This time though, he doesn't just see the city lights through a window bathed in rain droplets, he sees the very questions that bog his mind.

He runs all of the events through his head in an endless cycle. The explosion, the thing, the dead girl, the woman. The explosion, the thing, the dead girl, the woman. The explosion, the dead girl, the woman. The explosion, the woman. The explosion, the thing. The dead girl... the dead girl... Then his mind finally rested on the thought of the dead girl... He looks at the window and then as if fate was intending to tell him the answer, he sees a series of droplets on the window are now showing the kanji character for _spirit_.

"I can see the souls of the dead..." Haru admits at last to himself. He said it not only because it was true, it was because he might have found the very thing that can cure his boredom with his life. He repeats, "I can see spirits!" The recalling of that woman who had taken down that large monster gave him the idea that he might have finally discovered a way to get the action he has been looking for to liven up his life. Still... one thing was left on his mind.

"But... if I can see spirits now, then how is it I have this ability all of a sudden? Where did it come from?" His eyes rest on the outside world through the window.


	2. Chapter 2

Haru takes a seat at his desk in his bedroom. He pulls up his expensive laptop and turns it on. He goes on the internet and looks up sites. He surfs the web for a good ten minutes when his eye catches a link to a supposedly spiritual website that has answers for all of your spirit troubles. The site is called .

"Do they really have websites for that sort of thing?" Haru asks with a hint of curiosity in his voice. Before he knows it, his hand moves the mouse pointer over the link and clicks it.

The home page of shows a list of spiritual problems a person might have and then the web will present a solution for the problem. Haru's eyes glanced at the list and then he sees a problem that matches his very own problem—are you seeing strange things all of a sudden? Click.

An instant message screen pops up on the laptop. A message instantly comes up reading:

_Mod: Hello there. You have come here searching for answers for your ailment, is this right so far?_

Haru pauses a bit as he reads the message over and over. He starts to think if he should reply or just forget it. A moment passes by, then another. His fingers soon tap the keys on his laptop to send the message:

_Customer0261: Yes, you are correct._

Another message appears afterward:

_Mod: Will you please state your problem and include how it started and details._

Haru couldn't stop typing right away once the mysterious moderator asked him.

_Customer0261: It all started in the last couple of days when I went to an arcade with some guys. There was an explosion there that knocked me back and then I felt like I was hit by an invisible force from another direction that sent me flying in the opposite direction of the hit. After that, strange things were happening to me. No one didn't know I was there at all when the explosion happened. When I came to, I was in my home. Then right away I realized I was seeing otherworldly-beings right in front of my eyes… ghosts. Do you possibly know how it is I am now able to see the dead?_

There was a little pause after Haru posted the statement. A little while later, this appears on the screen:

_Mod: Well it does indeed sound like you might have been in contact with a spirit during the explosion. When the soul of a human like you makes a connection with a spirit, the energy being given off that one spirit will cause the awakening of the soul's spiritual powers. Once that happens, you are able to see, hear, and talk to the dead. That could be why you're now able to see ghosts._

Haru's eyes quickly read the message. He types in the following response to the moderator:

_Customer0261: So that's why then… and also another thing I think I should tell you that I forgot to mention. After I was starting to see ghosts, there was a very strange thing I saw in the park when I went for a walk. It was a ghost that was unlike any other ghost I have seen before… it was almost inhuman itself._

Haru presses enter and the message soon posts to the instant message screen. He waits for a good deal of time for a reply.

_Mod: I think this is the point in this case in which I will have to recommend a personal meeting to further explain things to you that don't need to be said on here._

_Customer0261: All right, I will comply. Where and when do you want me to meet you?_

_Mod: You will walk out of Oko Tower and then go right for four blocks. Turn right and go six blocks. Turn left and go one and a half blocks. There will be an alley on your left. Walk into it and you will find Urahara Shop. I will meet you there when you get there._

This amazes Haru as to how the moderator was able to know where he lives. He quickly types in a message to ask, but not quick enough. The instant message screen shows a message saying:

_End of Session_

His fist slams on the desk in frustration of not being able to ask the moderator the one question he was going to ask. Haru glares at the directions he was told on the screen. It didn't take a lot of time for him to have it down in his memory. Only thing left to do was to either go or don't go at all. It wasn't a difficult choice for Haru.

While grabbing his coat, he says to himself, "This better be good…" His feet slowly takes him out of the penthouse, down the hallway to the elevator, into the elevator, out of the elevator on the ground floor, and then out the front door into the street.

The sky is clearing of the rain clouds that have persisted over Karakura Town for the last hour. It's the twilight hours of the evening when the sun was still shining in the west, but night is now moving into the atmosphere. The streets still smell like the rain that it had been soaking in during the rain shower.

Haru takes in a deep breath and lets it out. He turns right and walks forward.

The walk is of a little bit more importance this time since Haru was now seeing not only the world of the living, but the world of the dead as well. There were a few lonely ghosts just floating above who have lost their way in the afterlife, and a couple of spirits that were bound by their will to the very spots where they have passed away.

The time spent on the walk gave Haru time to just think. He thinks about who it is he's going to meet and if the person can really be of help to him. His mind then wanders to his ideas of what he could do with this ability of his. He thinks of being a famous psychic, learning dangerous secrets that were meant to stay confidential, and becoming a television personality. That's all he's thinking about while he's walking—how to use his sight to get more action in his dull-some life.

Haru is able to stop his thoughts from wandering away when he finally reaches the alleyway the moderator told him. At the mouth of the entrance of the alley stands a giant, muscular man wearing an apron over his clothes and glasses. He has a mustache and a very strange hair-do that is pulled behind his big head into a ponytail. The man looks at Haru.

The man speaks, "So you have come at last."

"You're the one guy I was suppose to see about a problem of mine?" asks Haru.

"No, I am only an employee of the person that you come seeking," he replies. "If you will please follow me this way, sir." With this the strange man turns into the alley way and walks into it. Haru didn't think twice before he takes his foot forward and follows him.


	3. Chapter 3

The strange, giant man with the glasses and ponytail leads Haru down the alleyway and then around a corner. In a lot behind the buildings on the street stands a small building with a sign that says, "Urahara Shop."

"Wow, I never would have known that this was back here all along," Haru notes. The man turns to look at him.

"The person who has sent you here will be inside," he said. Haru follows him a bit more inside. In the first room he enters in the building, he sees shelves containing herbs, candy, and strange items that he has never seen before.

The stranger opens a door in the back and bids him in. Haru slowly goes through the door. He stands in front of a table that is in the room and sees there's no one else around.

"If you'll excuse me, I shall tell the manager that you're here and he'll be right with you," the guy says as he closes the door behind him. Haru slowly looks around the room and sees nothing but the bamboo screen walls and the low table that's in front of him. He takes a seat at it and waits for the person he is suppose to see.

His mouth then speaks out loud to the rest of him, "Well from what I understand of what that guy just told me, I think the manager of this joint is possibly the guy who told me to come here in the first place…" The door to the right then slides open, revealing the big guy who led Haru into the shop and another person, a man with shaggy blonde hair wearing green clothes, a dark coat on the outer layer of his clothes, a green and white striped bucket hat that hid part of his face, and he was wielding a fan in his hand. He grins at the sight of Haru.

"I knew you would come looking for me sooner or later," said the manager. "Tessai, you may leave us for now." The man next to him nods and leaves. Haru then takes to it that his real name is Tessai. The manager walks to the table and says, "Just to get introductions out of the way, I'll go first. My name is Kisuke Urahara and this is my shop. That site you were on is also mine as well. It was a recent business idea of mine and I think it's doing pretty good. "

Haru tells him, "I'm Haru Katsu."

"Well yes of course you are," said Urahara. He takes a seat at the table across from Haru. The door opens again and a girl with long pigtails enters with a tray holding a couple of cups.

She says, "Here's your tea Mr. Urahara."

"Why thank you Ururu!" Urahara replies with enthusiasm. Ururu puts the cups down on the table; one in front of Urahara and the other in front of Haru. She leaves and closes the door behind her. Urahara takes a sip of the brew. He speaks up, "She always makes good tea that goes good for any occasion."

Haru speaks back while holding his cup as it stays on the table, "Such as you answering the few questions that I need to ask?" Urahara takes a sip and puts his cup back down.

"Ah yes… that," he said. "From what I've understand from what you told me Mr. Katsu, you just recently achieved the sight to see the souls of the dead. Then you went on saying that you saw something in the park yesterday, correct?" Haru nods his head. Urahara asks, "Can you care to explain to me what it is that you have witnessed?" Haru looks at the tea in his cup, trying to word what he is going to tell him.

He tells Urahara, "Well… it was something I have never seen before in my whole life. I can remember the very sound it made when it screamed out. The cry it made almost felt like it was not a cry of pain, but a cry of anger. It came out of a bunch of trees and it was far from human… it was not from this world. All I recall is that it had black skin that looked like it was as strong as metal, a face that was reminiscent of a white mask, and the hole in its chest." Haru looks up at Urahara and sees he is a little bit concerned with what he was just told. Urahara puts away his fan and puts it on the table.

He says, "I now do indeed believe you that you can see the dead, Mr. Katsu. What you have just described was an evil spirit called a hollow." The word sparks curiosity in Haru.

"A hollow?" he asks.

"Hollows were once human souls themselves," Urahara answers to him. "They were human souls who lost all sense of sanity and a hole develops on their chest. When that happens, they morph into hollows. The only thing hollows live for is to feast on souls, whether they're dead or alive. And also when a soul is devoured by a hollow, it too becomes one of them as well." Haru felt a little sick to his stomach now since he realizes that that thing has stood within five feet of at the arcade was a human soul, but it now feeds on ghosts and living people.

"So that thing was truly a monster as I initially thought," Haru says after taking it all in.

Urahara sighs and says to him, "I wouldn't have told you right off the bat about the hollows, but you would have known sooner or later."

"Well why didn't you hold it off for a better time then Urahara?" Haru asks.

To this he replies, "It was better to tell you now than later on." There's a little pause between them. The cup Haru has in his hands goes up to his lips and Haru takes a sip. Haru then remembers another thing to tell him. He puts the cup down.

"One more thing before we're done here, there was also something else in the park that I saw that I thought of strange as well," he announces. Urahara looks up at him with interest. "When I saw the hollow was someone else there. That person got rid of the hollow in less than ten seconds at most. I figured it was her, but I didn't really see her do anything to it even when I had my eyes wide open. All I know was that she wore an orange coat and black pants and had long violet hair. She has got be very fast… incredibly fast…" Haru makes eye contact with Urahara, to see if he has an answer for who was that woman he saw. However, Urahara stands up and puts up his fan.

"Well I think we'll just save that tidbit for another time, Mr. Katsu," he says. Then he adds with enthusiasm, "For this one time only, our session will be a complimentary one. Free of charge."

"Wait!" Haru exclaims. "You mean you were going to be charging me for just getting straight answers from you?"

Urahara replies, "Well a man has got to make a living one way or another. Have a nice evening, Mr. Katsu." Before Haru has the chance to stand up and walk out the door, another door behind Urahara slides open. A woman voice calls out to Urahara and Haru instantly recognizes the voice from the only time he has heard it.

"Hey Kisuke I just got back," the voice calls out. Haru looks up to see the orange coat and purple hair he has seen from the park. This time he now also sees the woman's face which was hidden from him before. The face has golden yellow eyes that become wide when they see a person in the room that was not familiar to them. "Oh, I'm sorry Kisuke. I didn't know you had a guest here now," she says apologetically. Haru quickly opens his mouth and points his hand at her.

"It's you!" he yells.

Urahara sighs and says, "Yoruichi, this isn't exactly the best of times for you to be here now."


	4. Chapter 4

The air in the room is as still as the water of a pond on a calm day. Yet it feels heavy with the million questions that still ponder around in Haru's head. His eyes stay attached to the woman who has just walked into the room where he and Urahara were talking. The woman whom Haru has seen slaying the hollow at the park the previous day.

Urahara sighs and says, "Yoruichi, this isn't exactly the best of times for you to be here now." Yoruichi looks more closely at Haru.

"This human can see me Kisuke?" Yoruichi asks Urahara.

He replies, "Yep, I can guarantee you he can see you Yoruichi." He sips some more tea from his cup.

Haru then states, "You were there at the park when that hollow came out!" Yoruichi thinks for a bit and then she recalls it completely.

She says, "I remember you now! You were that bystander standing right behind me. I didn't think you saw all of that."

"Just who and what are you?" Haru asks wanting to know more. He sees Urahara sighing again.

"Guess it can't be helped at all now," he exclaims. Yoruichi takes a seat at the table with the two. Urahara then says, "Mr. Katsu, allow me to introduce you to my good friend here, Yoruichi. Yoruichi, this is my new client, Haru Katsu." Haru looks at him when he said "new client."

"Well it's nice to meet you Haru," Yoruichi says to him. His attention immediately went back to her. "So I take to it you're here to ask us questions to help you understand more about your new-found talent to see people like me." Haru takes a breath.

"Actually I no longer have any questions regarding that," he says to the two of them. Yoruichi looks at him with interest in what else he wants to know. After a bit of silence, Haru says, "What I want to know is just exactly what are you if you're able to take down a hollow like the one in the park that quickly?" With this question now out in the open, Yoruichi turns to look at Urahara.

"Should we tell him Kisuke?" she asks her friend. Urahara takes another sip of tea.

"We might as well since I've told him about the hollows," he replies. Yoruichi nods and turns her head back to Haru.

She asks Haru, "Have you possibly at all heard of the Soul Society?" The name didn't ring a bell with Haru of course.

He just says, "No, I haven't." He moves in closer to listen to what she has to say now.

"Well the Soul Society is the final resting place of all souls that passed on into the afterlife," Yoruichi states. "It is a place where no one can ever go hungry or live in anguish of a flawed world. The souls that are the protectors of the Soul Society and the guides for the souls down here in the world of the living are the ones called Soul Reapers." Haru now has his undivided attention on Yoruichi.

"Soul Reapers?" he asks with even more curiosity.

Yoruichi continues, "Soul Reapers are tasked with bringing the souls from down here to the Soul Society and to keep the balance between both worlds in check by killing the hollows. Now when a Soul Reaper kills a hollow, it doesn't literally mean that the hollow is killed. When a Soul Reaper does that to a hollow, that person just simply strips away the sins the hollow has committed after it became a hollow, and the soul that was the hollow becomes free and goes to the Soul Society." Haru then has her pause for a minute.

"So you mean to tell me that you're a Soul Reaper and you killed that hollow just because it's your duty to do it? To free that hollow's misled soul?" he asks right away.

Yoruichi notes, "Well you can say I did do it for the good of keeping the balance and that soul, but no, I'm no longer a Soul Reaper."

Haru keeps going, "No longer…?" She sighs with her eyes closed, as if she might have spoken too much.

Urahara now steps in and says, "It's actually a long story Mr. Katsu, but we'll save all of that for another time."

Haru interjects, "But I—. " Then something else now comes to his mind since Yoruichi has explained to him the Soul Reapers. "Well actually I only just have one question left then I'll be on my way," he says. Urahara looks at him.

"What else do you have to ask of us Mr. Katsu?" he asks Haru. He fires away his question.

"Just out of curiosity, how does one become a Soul Reaper?"

To this, Urahara replies, "Well you need to be dead first, then you go to the Soul Society. If you have a gift with spiritual powers, then you go through the Soul Reaper Academy. Once you complete that then you can join the 13 Court Guard Squads and you'll be an official Soul Reaper. But the time it usually takes to get there would take quite a few years at least." He sips his tea again. Haru grips his tea cup when he heard Urahara's answer. He looks at his reflection in the tea, and then takes a sip. The teacup is put gently down back on the table.

"Thank you for everything Mr. Urahara," Haru says to him.

Urahara replies, "Hey, it's my pleasure. I hope you'll do fine, Mr. Katsu." Then Haru turns to look at Yoruichi.

He says to her, "And thank you Yoruichi." She smiles at him.

"I'm glad to have been of some help," she says to Haru. He gets up and turns around to the door, which Tessai opens from behind. Before he walks out, Haru says something to Urahara once more.

"I take to it we might meet again, right Mr. Urahara?" Urahara thinks for a bit.

He answers, "It is a small world after all out there."

"Yes… yes it is," Haru says. He moves forward and walks out the door and the shop. While he leaves Yoruichi watches him leave. It was a little bit of time until Urahara speaks to her.

"He looks a lot like him, doesn't he?" Yoruichi moves her eyes down a bit as she stirs in thought.

"Yes," she says after a pause. "He really does." Urahara is about to speak again until Yoruichi beats him to it. "It's all right Kisuke. It's all right." She sighs and looks out at the front door. "I have a feeling we'll be seeing him again soon."

As for Haru he slowly makes his way home because he needs the time to think about the revelations of the spirit world he received from Urahara and Yoruichi. The idea of Soul Reapers has been giving him quite an excitement for he is now seeing this as a way to finally obtain the action he has been searching for quite a while now. Yet the thing that dampened his mood was the notion that if he wants to become a Soul Reaper, he must be dead first and that didn't thrill him as much.

"Well so much for that plan now," he says to himself once he finally arrives at the penthouse in Oko Tower. "That even sounded really fun to be a Soul Reaper. It sounded better than my life right now." It is really late and so Haru walks to his bedroom and plops himself on his bed. He looks up at the ceiling as he thinks.

"There has got to be a way to become a Soul Reaper without having to die to become one," Haru says to himself. Then his thoughts return to Yoruichi all of a sudden by themselves. "Now that I think about it, since I've ever had a conversation with her, it's almost like I've met her somewhere else before this week, but why does it feel like that?"

Haru's eyelids then start to weigh in on his face. He feels the drowsiness starting to take over him as he tries to think more about being a Soul Reaper. Then after a long-fought battle with himself, his eyelids won and he fell asleep on his bed.


	5. Chapter 5

Darkness, it is all around. It covers Haru from head to toe and his senses as well.

"Where am I?" Haru asks, wondering what the sensation is that he's feeling... the feeling of non-existence. He can feel that he is walking forward, but he can't see himself walk. His hand reaches forward, but he can't see his own hand in front of his eyes.

Then he feels his hand touches a flat surface. Haru's curiosity grows once again and his fingers fumble around the surface. The touch in his fingers told his senses that he was standing in front of a door. His hands push against the door and a bright light shines upon him after the door opens.

Haru quickly covers his eyes from the instant flash and slowly lowers his hand. The door he opens leads him into a dojo which is lit by fire torches hanging on the wall.

"What is this place?" Haru wonders. Then he looks down at himself and he sees he is wearing a white karate uniform. "How did I get into this?" He stops quickly as he starts to sense that there's someone else in the room with him. An unusual voice calls out to him.

"This is the outer sanctum of your soul Haru." The boy turns around and at one side of the dojo standing in shadows is a person.

"Who are you?" Haru asks his hidden visitor.

"I am..." the stranger replies. Haru didn't hear him say his name.

He asks, "Can you say that again?" He hears the person stepping forward from the shadows.

Then the voice says, "Well of course you can't hear my name now. You just only met me." He finally steps out of the shadows and Haru sees that he wasn't at all human like him. He had the form of a human, but his body is a red-scaled dragon with long orange flaming hair. He is also wearing a karate uniform, but it's black. "It is only fair that I told you that you can't be able to hear my name the first time," the dragon being says.

"What the heck are you?" Haru questions him. The dragon's breathing can be heard from quite a distance when the whole place is as silent as a graveyard.

"I am... and I am here to guide you Haru," he speaks with his deep voice. He walks closer to Haru.

"What do you mean you're here to guide me?" Haru asks him. "You mean you're here to tell me what to do or else something bad will happen if I don't do it?" The dragon being stops within five feet of Haru. His mouth speaks in response to Haru's question.

"I am here to train you to become a Soul Reaper, Haru." The words were more than anything else that Haru has been wanting to hear with his ears.

He speaks up, "You're going to teach me to how to be a Soul Reaper? Are you serious?" There is now a little glimmer of hope in Haru that he really might have the chance to do something with his life.

"I never say things that I don't mean Haru," the dragon being answers him. He goes on, "This is what you were wanting, right Haru? Ever since you've just heard the word Soul Reaper, you were wishing to be one of their elite." This Haru knows is true.

"Wait, how do you know all of this?" Haru immediately asks. The dragon being looks at him.

He says to Haru, "I know a lot of things about you... things you did as a child, what you prefer to eat when it rains, and how you are bored with your existence in the world of the living." These statements soon have Haru a little bit freaked out that the dragon being might really know that much about him.

He insinuates, "What are you? A creeper who has a skin disorder of some sort?" The dragon being glares at him. He vanishes. "Huh? Where did you go?" Haru quickly looks around, then he feels a scaly hand grips his right arm. A great force pulls Haru and he is thrown against a wall. "Oof!" He ends up on his head on the ground and his body against the wall. Haru turns his head up to the stranger.

The dragon speaks, "First, you must have respect for your teacher Haru. If we are going to make a Soul Reaper out of your soul, then there must be cooperation between the master and his student." Haru thinks of how strong and quick he is. The dragon appears to be reading the expression on his face and then says, "Yes, if you focus hard enough Haru, you can learn to be just as powerful and quick than I am." Haru uprights himself on the ground and stands up.

"Well I don't know if I can trust you or not, but if you're saying I can become a Soul Reaper this way, then I guess it's a good way to spend my time then whether it's worth it or not," Haru states to him. The dragon grins. Haru finishes, "So if you can make me a Soul Reaper, go right ahead then."

The dragon says, "I will not be going easy on you. You must be the one to keep up with the pace I'll be laying out for you."

"If you only keep throwing me against the wall, I think we won't have a problem then," replies Haru.

The Soul Reaper training went straight into the combat training. Here, Haru is learning moves from his master that the Soul Reapers use with both their fists and weapons. Haru has sparring matches with the dragon teacher and the latter would always reign victorious.

Alongside with the combat, they had training with the hollows. They went over how to fight a hollow, what the hollow's weak spots are, and how to deal with a Menos Grande.

They went straight back to their combat training. Haru keeps at it for a while, trying his best to bring down his teacher. There have been signs with each match that Haru is improving. The training went on for what seems to be days, and then maybe even weeks. Yet for a reason Haru never paid any notice to the progression of time. He is on his way to become a Soul Reaper and that's all Haru is thinking about.

The dragon master faces Haru one more time in a sparring match and it is now proven that Haru has come a long way since they've started. He defeats his master in hand-to-hand combat. The dragon master grins in approval.

"You have done well now my student," he says. "You have outdone me in a sparring match and so I think now is a good time for me to reward you for your hard work." The teacher stands up and walks into the shadows again. When he reemerges he has in his arms a Soul Reaper uniform. "Put this on and you will be a Soul Reaper, Haru," the master tells him. Haru holds the uniform in his hands and looks at it with admiration.

Haru exclaims, "I never thought their uniforms were this cool!" Without a second to waste, he puts it on. The uniform is mostly like a normal Soul Reaper uniform, but the only difference with this one is that the sleeves are half the length of a normal uniform's sleeve length. "This is incredible! It's awesome!" The dragon master looks at him with a little beam of pride.

Then he finally says, "Listen to me very carefully Haru... that uniform is a symbol to the lost souls of the land of the living that you will guide them to the afterlife. To the hollows it is the sign of their untimely end. You must always wear this with pride, not with the satisfaction of just wearing it." He nods at Haru. "That is all I can teach you for now."

"But isn't there anymore we can do?" Haru interjects.

"Yes, but the time will come for those at a later date," his teach tells him. "For the mean time, you must go. We will meet again Haru." Haru looks at his master.

"Thank you for everything," he says to the dragon teacher. The master walks forward and places his hand on Haru's head.

The dragon's last words are, "Thank you."

Haru then wakes up and he finds himself in his bed in his bedroom in Oko Tower. It didn't take him to shake his head in frustration.

"Dammit... it was only a dream," Haru mutters under his breath. He rolls in his bed towards his night stand. "It felt real though for some strange reason. Maybe I've just been thinking too much about this whole Soul Reaper thing..."

The alarm clock on it says it is 8:23 in the morning. Haru's eyes quickly swing by the date on it and he gets out of bed and gets into his clothes. He walks to his bedroom's door. Once he opens the door to get out, something occurs to him.

Haru dashes back to his alarm clock and looks at the date again. It is now saying that the day is the second day since he fell asleep after his confrontation with Urahara and Yoruichi. Haru has been asleep for two whole days unless someone was pulling a prank on him and messed with his alarm clock

"So did all of that training... really did happen?" Haru questions to himself. His eyes wander to the outside again through his bedroom window.


	6. Chapter 6

The shopping district of downtown Karakura Town isn't exactly the best place to be on a Saturday, but Haru doesn't mind. The noise has a calming effect on him has he walks down the street, while not paying attention to the windows displaying advertisements for sales and special items. Shopping is the last thing on Haru's mind, especially when the first thing on it is trying to figure out how did he end up sleeping for the last straight two days since he visited with Urahara and Yoruichi.

He thinks to himself, "_Well it couldn't be a prank pulled off by anyone of course because only my dad and I can get inside our penthouse. You have to be very sneaky to get inside the place. So what if it really did happen? All of that training with that dragon-guy-thing to become a Soul Reaper was for real?_

"_That training did feel like the actual thing and it did felt like we were at it for days. Yet I don't feel like I can now take on anybody with these fists now. I still feel like before I went to bed, still filled with questions about the Soul Reapers. How can I know now what really did happen when there's no real way for me to solve that question?_"

Haru stops in his tracks. He feels once again that there is something inhuman in the area, but this time he knows what it is. A spirit is nearby. The cry of a hollow rings through the air. A _dangerous_ spirit is nearby.

Haru looks around the busy street to see if anything is out of the unusual. There wasn't anything out of the ordinary. A hollow cries out again and then the top floor of nearby building explodes.

Innocent people on the street start running in panic from the explosion and the debris that was flying all around. Haru looks at the gaping hole in the building and sees a giant lizard-like tail moves out of it. A little girl falls from the hole and Haru can see there's a chain connected to her chest and that the chain is broken. He quickly realizes it's a spirit.

With as much speed as possible, Haru runs and catches the falling spirit in his arms. He immediately gets out of the way of more falling debris.

"Get out of here!" Haru tells the spirit. She nods and runs away from the area. Haru looks back up at the top story of the building. The lizard-tail pulls back into the hole. A silent moment passes on the street. Then a hollow jumps from the building and in Haru's direction. Without a moment to lose, Haru dives away from danger. The hollow, however, grabs him by his ankle.

The hollow speaks in an eerie voice, "How lovely for a human soul like yours... to have a wonderful scent to it. I just can only imagine what it tastes like!" At this point Haru considers that it's the end of the line for him as the hollow lunges at him with an open mouth.

"Taste this!" There is a quick dash in front of Haru's eyes. Then standing right between him and the hollow is Yoruichi. She kicks the hollow with amazing strength and sends it flying. He gets back up right away.

"Yoruichi!" Haru exclaims. "Am I glad to see you now." The hollow gets back up on its feet.

It says, "Oh ho, so I get two tasty souls for the price of one. How marvelous today is for me!" The hollow then seems to disappear, as if blending into a background like a chameleon lizard. "This will be a fun catch for me..." Haru tries to look to see if he can spot where the hollow went, but no luck.

Yoruichi looks around as well and says, "This isn't good." She circles around cautiously, hoping to catch the hollow before it catches them. Time feels like it had slowed down over the silence of the battle against the evil spirit to the point it stops completely. Haru can feel the hollow is closing in on them, but he doesn't know from which direction. He just feels it.

Then Haru feels something slipping into his right hand. He looks down and sees some strange, white ribbon is now in his hand.

"What the heck is that?" he asks. Yoruichi turns to him and sees the ribbon in his hand. Her eyes widen at the sight of it.

"How did you get your hands on a spiritual ribbon?" she asks him right away. Then her eyes widen even more when she finally looks behind Haru to see the hollow has come out of hiding and is going in for the kill. Yoruichi exclaims, "Haru! Behind you!"

Haru's eyes follow the ribbon in his hands to behind him and then they find the other end of the ribbon connected to the hollow that is lunging at him. In that frame of time, Haru looks down the throat of the malevolent beast that is soon to devour him. He sees death robed in black and emerges towards him in a bright beam of light. It strikes Haru squarely on his forehead.

Back in real time, the tongue of the hollow extends from its mouth in an attempt to kill Haru. It hits Haru in the head, but it didn't kill him. No what happened instead is that Haru feels like he was being pushed back by the hollow's tongue, then he sees something fall in front of him. It's him he sees falling to the ground. It wasn't just himself that Haru saw collapsing. It was his body that took the fall. Haru's spirit was separated from his body by the hollow's attempted attack on him.

Yet it wasn't the separation of his soul from his body that catches Haru by surprise. It's what his spirit is wearing that did. Haru looks at himself and he realizes that he is wearing the very exact same Soul Reaper uniform he was wearing in the dream. It is exactly the same because the sleeves were the same length-it goes a bit above his elbows.

Haru processes in his head, "_So that dream was real! I am a Soul Reaper now!_"

"Why are you dressed like a Soul Reaper?" Yoruichi asks when she sees Haru's spirit wearing the garb of a Soul Reaper. Then her attention went back to the hollow as it slowly progresses forward.

"So I now have two very delicious souls now to feast on. Oh this day gets better and better," says the hollow. "Only problem is I can't decide which one to eat first."

Haru thinks, "_Wait a minute, if I did really train to be a Soul Reaper, then doesn't that mean that I can now fight hollows?_" He looks at the hollow, then without thinking twice he walks toward it. "_Only one way to find out._"

The hollow exclaims, "So you want to be first, eh Soul Reaper? That's fine with me!"

"Haru! Don't be a fool!" Yoruichi shouts at him. "You don't even know how to fight hollows!" Haru keeps walking forward to the hollow.

Haru replies back to Yoruichi, "No, Yoruichi. You're wrong." He stops five feet from the hollow and looks at it with eyes full of determination. Yoruichi watches him and she knows now that there's something about Haru that assures her that she could be in for a surprise.

The hollow charges at Haru with a wide, open mouth. Haru dodges its attack and then kicks it, causing it to fly into a nearby wall. This leaves Yoruichi astounded. However the hollow gets back up and faces Haru again.

It laughs and speaks, "I love it when my prey has a little fight in it! Makes it more enjoyable when I eat it!" Once again the hollow blends into its surroundings.

"Haru! Be on your guard!" Yoruichi advises him. He looks around and he can't see the hollow anywhere. Then Haru recalls the training he had with the dragon master. It was a typical move for his master to blend into the shadows and become undetectable during their sparring matches. The move was usually Haru's downfall in those matches, but he eventually learned how to not rely on sight to find his opponent.

Haru closes his eyes and the sounds of the outside world are no longer heard by him. He lets his other senses search for the hollow for him. He can feel that the hollow is close and it's still on the ground. Haru hears something that is not of this world move closer to him. The sounds of movement get closer to him. Yoruichi observes him but then she notices something about Haru that makes her change her mind about the situation.

She shouts at Haru, "Are you insane to go up against a hollow without a zanpakuto? You don't plan to beat him with your bare hands, are you?" Her yelling however never made it to Haru's ears. He maintains his focus in searching out for the hollow and waiting for the most opportune moment to do away with it. The sounds get closer and closer and closer to Haru. He can then hear the hollow breathing and chuckling in sheer enjoyment of the hunt, though it doesn't know that it too is being hunted as well.

Yoruichi sees the hollow's head reappear right in front of Haru. Haru still has his eyes close and he looks like he's at total peace with the world at the moment.

Yoruichi warns, "Haru!"

"Now stand still Soul Reaper!" the hollow says as it opens it mouth to move in for the kill. Haru's eyes open at long last and he quickly moves his hand and grasps the hollow by its forehead. Its whole body now reappears. It stammers in surprise at Haru's skills. "Y-y-you're good s-Soul Reaper. B-but how do you intend to kill me w-without a z-zanpakuto?"

Haru glances sternly at the hollow. He then feels like something is flowing straight into his hand that is holding the hollow's head. Haru couldn't understand what it is, but he feels like he needs to release it like turning on a faucet. He expels the strange force he was feeling in his hand. In turn his hand creates a huge blast of energy and it splits the hollow in half. It cries out in agony and its body dissipates.

The blast Haru made shocks him to his core. He looks at his own hand as if he has washed it in blood. His body turns to Yoruichi. The sounds of the outside world now return to Haru's ears and the two of them look at each other.

Yoruichi quietly says, "Just what are you Haru?"


	7. Chapter 7

The fight against the hollow was won by Haru's own hands. His very first battle with a malevolent spirit turned into his very first victory. Yet Haru is now looking at his own hands as if he committed an evil act with them because of the blast of energy that expelled from them that gave him the win.

Yoruichi approaches him and fires away, "Haru, what is going on here? Why are you dressed a Soul Reaper? How come you fight like one with those moves and that kido spell? How did you even do kido without the chant?" She ends up pressing him against a wall.

"Whoa, whoa, Yoruichi!" Haru replies to her. "I don't know how this happened!"

Yoruichi says, "Don't you dare lie to me because we can take this the easy way, or the hard way." Haru gets lifted up the ground against the wall.

"Ok, ok!" Haru intercedes. Yoruichi looks at him in the eye and she lowers him down. "I don't know if this helps or what, but it was a couple of days ago after I left the shop. I went to bed that very evening and then I never woke up again for another two days." He sees that this piques her curiosity.

"And the reason why I slept for so long is that I got caught in some sort of dream in which this strange person was training me to become a Soul Reaper. After I completed the training, he gave me this same uniform that I'm now wearing. Then before I knew it, I woke up and realized that I had a prolonged sleep." Yoruichi releases her grip on Haru's clothes and takes a step back. She thinks for a bit about what Haru just told her. "Does it mean anything to you, Yoruichi?" Haru asks. Her eyes slowly make their way to Haru's.

"I think this is something Kisuke is going to want to hear," she announces to him. Yoruichi extends her arm forward, grabs Haru by his wrist, and she uses her flash-step technique to quickly take him to Urahara's shop. Haru is astounded by her speed since he never really did see her cover so much distance in a little amount of time.

There on the front step of the shop is, of course, Urahara. He's outside enjoying the day when the two decided to drop in for a visit. Urahara sees Haru with Yoruichi, and Haru is still wearing his Soul Reaper uniform.

He smiles and says, "Well if it isn't our dear old friend, Mr. Haru Katsu. And I see you changed your style quite a bit. Just feeling like trying something new?" Yoruichi steps forward to him.

She says, "Kisuke, this is going to be a little unusual." Urahara glances up at her from under his hat.

"I'm listening," he says to her.

For the next few minutes inside the shop at the same table they sat at before, Haru tells Urahara about how after their last meeting that he was thinking about becoming a Soul Reaper, the dream he had in which he was being trained by a strange dragon being, and then the battle he recently had. After Haru and Yoruichi gave Urahara both of their accounts of the events, he puts his hand on his chin and is deep in thought.

A second or two passes by before Urahara responds, "There's only one explanation for Haru to have gained Soul Reaper skills in this short amount of time." Yoruichi and Haru lean in to hear what he has to say. "The only explanation for this is that Haru has achieved a special kind of training that is known just as dream training because, given its name, its training a Soul Reaper does while in his or her sleep."

Yoruichi repeats, "Dream training...? I've never heard of anything like that."

"That's because it's not a common occurrence," Urahara explains. "This does happen, but only about say... once every 100 years. And for the Soul Reapers who do complete the dream training, they go on to later achieve greater power that no normal Soul Reaper can obtain." He looks at Haru. "Mr. Katsu, I have no doubt now that you did went through dream training and the fact you took on a hollow with nothing else proves it."

Haru feels the silence in the room, as if he knew it was a good old friend who has been with him through good times and bad. The weight of the glances upon him from Urahara and Yoruichi were the only thing Haru can feel. His eyes fall down upon the table.

Haru breaks the silence with one statement: "So I really am a Soul Reaper now, huh?"

Urahara intervenes, "Correction, you're only one-half of a Soul Reaper, Haru." Haru looks back at him with a curious expression.

"How so?" he finally questions the recent statement.

"Even though you do fight like a Soul Reaper and have Soul Reaper powers, there's one key thing that you're missing that will make you a complete Soul Reaper," Urahara tells Haru. Haru thinks for a while about what it is he can be missing. He knows he has the uniform, the fighting skills, and the kido, so what else can he be missing?

Urahara apparently can see it on his face that he doesn't know what it is he lacks, for he then says, "What you're missing here, Haru, is the weapon of the Soul Reapers-a zanpakuto." The word falls on Haru's ears like a foreign word that he never heard before in his life.

"Zanpakuto?" he asks them.

Yoruichi answers, "It's a special weapon used only by Soul Reapers. They're basically swords in your world, but each zanpakuto is different for each Soul Reaper. The zanpakuto represents the Soul Reaper's spiritual power." Haru ponders on it for a bit.

"So all I need in order to become a full-fledged Soul Reaper is to get my hands on a zanpakuto," he says. "So where do I go to get one?" he asks them.

Yoruichi answers, "Haru, zanpakutos are not just sold at stores or forged by special craftsmen." This leaves Haru back in the dumps. Urahara clears his throat.

"There is only one way for you to earn your zanpakuto Haru," he informs him. Upon hearing this Yoruichi stands up.

She protests, "You're not serious in helping him becoming a Soul Reaper, are you Kisuke?"

"What's done has been done and once he starts, he might as well finish it," Urahara calmly replies to her. She looks at Haru with a worried look. However for Haru to hear him saying that there is a way, his mood quickly lightens up.

"Well what is it?" Haru quickly asks Urahara with anticipation. Urahara stands up from the table.

"The only way for you to know how to get your zanpakuto is for you to do it," Urahara exclaims. With this Tessai comes in and moves the table they were sitting at. Then Urahara moves aside a panel of the floor to reveal a hole going underground. Urahara then says, "We'll do it in here. Now if you please Haru." He beckons him to go down the hole.

Haru gets a little rush of adrenaline since he now knows he is a Soul Reaper and that he's going to be getting the next best thing in his whole life, a killer weapon. This causes him to jump right into the hole. Right at the moment Haru is over it, he looks down and sees how deep it goes. Haru hangs onto the edge of the hole. Urahara kneels by him up top.

"It's best to be wise to use the ladder Haru," he says to him as he points to the ladder. Haru sighs and grabs onto the ladder and he climbs down it. Urahara follows down and then Yoruichi goes as well.


	8. Chapter 8

Haru stands right next to Urahara and Yoruichi at the bottom of Urahara's massive-underground training place that lays under Karakura Town and Urahara's Shop. He gazes in wonder at the massive space that he stands in.

"HOLY CRAP!" Haru yells. "How the hell did you not end up in trouble with the city for this?"

"What they don't know won't hurt them," Urahara replies as he holds his favorite fan in front of his face. "But that's not the point right now, Haru. If you are intending on becoming an actual Soul Reaper, you need to manifest a zanpakuto and to do that you need to confront your zanpakuto in yourself." Haru sort of gets it, but not to a full extent about what he really meant.

"Well what do you need me to do then?" he asks the both of them.

"It's really quite simple," Urahara speaks. "Just sit down and focus really hard." Haru walks away from the two of them about ten feet and sits on the rocky ground.

"You mean like this?" he asks.

"Very good," Urahara cries out to Haru. "Now I want you to focus your eyes on me for a second Haru..." Haru becomes a little confused again, but the words of action settle into his brain and he locks his eyesight on his instructor. The two stare at each other for a period of time during which Yoruichi looks at them both with a bit of caution. Then Urahara folds his fan up and points to behind Haru.

"BEHIND YOU!" he warns to him. Because of the built-up suspense of that staring contest, Haru quickly looks behind him. To his embarrassment he sees nothing but more rocky terrain and the artificial sky of the training grounds. His head turns back and focuses his attention on a certain shop keeper that is hiding his expression of sheer joy behind a fan. Urahara says, "I told you behind you."

"Like I'm going to fall for that twice," Haru intercedes. However, it should have been best to give in to the boy that cried, "wolf," for hiding behind one of the outcrops near Haru is Tessai. He picks up a basketball sized rock and hurls it over the outcrop. Five seconds later the rock hits it target-Haru's noggin.

The impact knocks him out. Haru collapses onto his back on the ground. Yoruichi and Urahara walk right up to his side and look down at him.

"I told you so Haru," Urahara continues on his stint. "Nice aim Tessai!" he then compliments his co-worker and the big guy gives a little hum in response. Yoruichi looks down at Haru's face and she looks like she has a lot going through her mind.

Back to Haru who is now unconscious and will possibly suffer head trauma after this, he opens his eyes and finds himself once again back at the dojo where he first became a Soul Reaper.

"Oh this brings back memories," Haru tells himself as he recalls the endless Soul Reaper 101 crash course training he received from that strange dragon humanoid being. And speak of the devil standing right in front of Haru is the very same being that helped him become a Soul Reaper.

"So you're back again, I see," the dragon being says.

"Yes," Haru softly speaks.

The dragon being replies, "And you have returned to me to earn the right to gain your zanpakuto, am I correct?"

"Yes. I am here before you to retrieve my zanpakuto" Haru responds. The humanoid dragon closes his eyes and takes a breath.

"Well in your own soul lays a zanpakuto, but it's not yours yet," it answers.

"I see," Haru says as he looks down a bit. His head moves back up and he questions, "Then what must I do to gain this zanpakuto?" His dragon master steps aside and at the same time a couple of doors slide open behind him to reveal a hallway.

The dragon instructs, "At the other end of this gauntlet you will find what it is you seek. Reach the end and then you will be able to wield your own zanpakuto." Filled with determination to earn his zanpakuto, Haru stands up from the ground.

"Is that all? Well I don't know why I'm just sitting here when I could have been half-way there already," Haru gleams with even more confidence. Without thinking his legs started to move into a brisk jog and he enters the hallway. Then suddenly a pendulum axe comes down right in front of Haru. His eyes become wide with surprise. He manages to quickly dodge the pendulum axe and presses on down the hall.

"You never told me about any traps!" Haru yells to his master.

The dragon being responds, "You never asked at all. Besides you were going to find out sooner or later whether I told you or not that there were obstacles for you." Haru grits his teeth and mutters under his breath, "Great..."

Still this didn't slow or discouraged him at all. Haru moves down the endless dojo hallway with great speed. He encounters various snares such as bottomless pits, spikes, arrows, crushing pillars, and more pendulum axes. It seems to Haru he was running through the hallway for an hour or two and the obstacles had no end.

Finally Haru gets past the final booby trap which was a combination of a trap door that revealed a pit with spears at the bottom, spiked pendulums, and a section of hallway filled with arrows that will shoot at the slightest sense of movement. Haru stops and bends over with his hands on his knees. His lungs fill in with as much oxygen as they can get. He knows that he has made it to the end of the gauntlet, but the question is what is going to happen next? All there was for the next twenty feet in front of him was an empty hallway with a dead end.

Haru lifts his head up and learns that he really isn't alone at all. Standing in front of the dead end hallway wall is a figure cloaked in black. The stranger's face is hidden by a hood.

"Wh-who are you?" Haru asks the being. A silent moment passes between the two.

The stranger replies, "It doesn't matter who I am. What should matter to you is if you are worthy of wielding an actual zanpakuto."

"If I'm worthy to wield a zanpakuto?" Haru questions. "Hey I haven't come all this way for nothing! I came here to achieve my zanpakuto one way or another! Now who are you?"

To this the cloaked person responds, "No. It's not who I am. It's who I was." The stranger then grabs his hood and pulls it back. The sight that is to behold for Haru is a shocking one. The grotesque masked figure looks exactly like Haru with the same facial features, eyes, and hair style and color. The only difference between the two is that the cloaked look-alike seems to be Haru when he's in his twenties. Haru can't help himself but to look surprisingly at the person who stands in front of him.

"You... you... you l-look like me..." Haru slowly says. "H-how is this possible?"

The copycat person charges toward him. Haru is caught a little off guard from this attack, but he manages to block his punch. His eyes see the guy going in for a kick. He dodges it as well. Then Haru attempts to kick the leg his opponent is only standing on. This doesn't go to plan as his look-alike jumps on his one leg before Haru got close enough with his kick.

"I can see that you were trained well by..." the copycat admits. Haru didn't hear the name, but he knows he's talking about his dragon master that taught him how to fight. Then the look-alike asks, "I only have one question of you." Haru listens closely to his question. "Do you intend to use your Soul Reaper powers just for looking for adventure or to maintain the balance between the world of the living and the spirit world? If you're only doing this just to seek thrills, then you're doing this for the wrong reasons."

Haru is almost frozen in sudden surprise as he does recall that he did started this adventure in hopes of finding something fun to do. Well his journey so far as indeed gave him just that, but then what? He then thinks back to the hollow he had fought earlier that day. That victory was very pleasant for Haru, but at the same time he now felt like he was doing a public service to rid that malevolent spirit. Is that what's it like to be a Soul Reaper? To be protectors of humans and spirits...

Haru answers, "At first I did wanted to become a Soul Reaper to look for adventure, but then... as I keep on working on my skills, I started to have a change of heart. I now know that this isn't like a cool video game where I can make up for my mistakes. This is a serious business that must be treated respectfully." He looks at his look-alike who is just observing him. "My answer to your question is that I intend to become an actual Soul Reaper for both of those reasons: to protect and to look for an adventure."

Silence takes place between the two. Haru hopes that his answer is good enough for his masquerader. He waits to see what will happen next. Will he be able to continue on to earn his zanpakuto, or will he fail? His mysterious copy then gives a grin.

"Haru that is the right and honest answer you just gave," he says and starts to walk towards Haru. "You are indeed worthy to wield a zanpakuto of your own. Isn't that right, Soraryuu?" The novice Soul Reaper never heard that name before. Then a familiar voice falls on his ears.

"He is indeed..." the humanoid dragon says as he appears in the hallway behind Haru.

Haru's eyes widen and he immediately asks, "Wait, your name is Soraryuu?"

"Oh so you finally heard my name Haru," Soraryuu says. He states, "That's even a clearer sign that you are ready to wield me as your zanpakuto." Haru is quickly confused by the sentence.

"Wield you...?" he asks. Then his attention moves back to his older clone who then draws out a sheathed sword from his cloak. The sword is reminiscent of the Japanese Samurai sword. "Wow... is this a-"

"Zanpakuto. Yes it is Haru," Soraryuu tells him. "You have worked very hard and you now have earned the right to wield me." The pieces were coming together now in Haru's mind.

He says, "No way... you mean you're my zanpakuto, Soraryuu?"

"Yes! I am your zanpakuto now Haru," the dragon being mightily roars. "Now wield me!" Haru stares at the handle of the zanpakuto. His hand slowly moves forward towards it. His fingers then wrap around the handle and at the same time his hand pulls the sword out of its sheath. The blade shines with a sharp beauty. Haru is mesmerized by his new obtained zanpakuto.

"Now call out my name and command me for the bond between you and me is now formed Haru," Soraryuu continues on. Haru feels the rush flowing to his head that he's on his way now to become a real Soul Reaper. He grips onto his sword and holds symmetrically in front of his body.

With every ounce of strength Haru commands, "Fly! Soraryuu!"

Returning to the real world now, it's only Yoruichi left as she is sitting with her legs crossed on the rocky floor about a few yards from Haru's unconscious body. Her eyes are fixated on him and she thinks. Then she gasps when she notices that his body starts to illuminate and there's a spike in his spiritual pressure. Yoruichi feels it increasing like crazy and the light becomes stronger by the millisecond. She uses her famous shunpo technique to back off from Haru about fifty yards. Her stare remains on him until his body becomes enveloped by the light. It wasn't long before Urahara finally appears by Yoruichi's side.

"So," he states, "it looks like he finally managed to do it." The eyes hidden by the shade provided by his hat looks at the source of the light. The earth starts to crumble under the intense weight of the increasing spiritual pressure.

Yoruichi then says, "This is very strong. His spiritual pressure... it's just like-" She didn't get to finish her sentence when her friend puts his hand on her shoulder.

"I know," Urahara comforts her with.

Suddenly the sphere of light seems to implodes towards the center-Haru. The orb of light shatters and a mighty burst of wind occurs. Yoruichi and Urahara look down at the epicenter of a twenty-five meter diameter crater. At the center Haru stands tall and mighty as he wields above his head a sword shaped like a European Medieval long sword. Its blade extends to four feet high in the air as its owner holds onto it.

Haru brings the sword down and to his side in a slashing move. The move produces a large gust of wind. He then realizes that with his zanpakuto released into this form, it can create wind bursts with each swing. A thirty foot tall rock tower stands not too far from the crater Haru now stands in. Right in front of Urahara and Yoruichi's eyes he uses shunpo for the very first time. Yoruichi is surprised by the speed her new friend has suddenly required out of some training when he possibly doesn't even know what shunpo is.

The eager Soul Reaper charges to the rock formation. He raises his open left hand in front of his body. A blast of white light energy propels from Haru's palm. It strikes the base of the rock tower and it starts to collapse. Urahara is impressed by this little stunt.

He chuckles a bit and says, "Amazing... he just did a kido attack without using a chant."

The attack on the piece of Earth wasn't enough for Haru. He takes one step forward; in the time it will take anyone to say, "Holy-!" Haru shunpos all around the rock tower with his zanpakuto, cutting it into smaller pieces. He returns to his starting point before his shunpo and maintains holding his sword. The medium sized boulders that Haru had made from the one rock tower crashes down to the ground with a rumbling ground and pound sound.

Yoruichi stammers, "Haru... he's a... Soul Reaper... now..." The human Soul Reaper looks at her and Urahara. He gives an exciting smile.

"Thank you two," he thanks them. "I am now a Soul Reaper..." Haru looks at Soraryuu in its released form one more time. He sees his reflection in the blade; he finally sees what he has been wanting to become for the last few days. The zanpakuto converts to its coherent Samurai-sword form before Haru sheaths it. Haru then speaks, "Thank you... Soraryuu."


End file.
